September 23, 2025: The arrival of new heavyweight traders and global banks signals growing confidence in uranium's future

This week on Uranium Spotlight Podcast: 

1. Spot market rebounds, prices hit two-month high
2. Financial heavyweights move into uranium
3. India's nuclear ambitions and the hunt for uranium 
4. Russia doubles down on reactors, tightens uranium supply
5. Purepoint's Dorado delivers high-grade uranium

Powered by Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSXV: PTU | OTCQB: PTUUF)
https://purepoint.ca/

Transcript

It’s Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025, and this week on Uranium Spotlight: Spot prices surge to a two-month high as liquidity returns, financial heavyweights like Mercuria and Citi step into uranium trading, India lays out a bold plan for one hundred gigawatts of nuclear power, Russia doubles down on reactors and tightens supply, and Purepoint’s Dorado joint venture delivers standout high-grade assays in the Athabasca Basin.

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Spot Market Rebounds, Prices Hit Two-Month High

Uranium closed last week at $77.25 per pound, up from $75.95 the week before, marking its strongest level since July. After a slow start to September, the familiar pattern of spot activity accelerating in the back half of the month is clearly playing out.

Momentum began building after comments from U.S. Secretary Wright on boosting uranium reserves, which sparked renewed buying interest. That sentiment allowed the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust to trade above NAV, raising at least $135 million since mid-September and acquiring about 1.2 million pounds of U3O8. SPUT was far from alone—last week saw 25 confirmed transactions, most requiring delivery within three months. In total, September has already reached 3.5 million pounds transacted across 34 deals.

Day-to-day pricing was volatile but trended higher. Monday’s early dip quickly reversed with steady buying through midweek, and by Friday the daily indicator settled at $77.25. Regionally, prompt delivery prices ended the week at $77.25 for Cameco, $78.00 for Orano, and $78.50 for ConverDyn.

The term market, by contrast, remains quiet, with utilities reviewing offers for long-dated coverage but no new contracts signed. Many are expected to hold back until after October’s NEI fuel meetings.

For investors, the key takeaway is that spot liquidity has returned, prices are regaining upward momentum, and funds like SPUT are once again active buyers—an encouraging signal for uranium equities.

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Financial Heavyweights Move Into Uranium

Swiss commodities giant Mercuria has officially stepped into the uranium market. Known for its strong record in oil and gas trading, Mercuria has been eyeing metals—and particularly energy transition commodities—for some time. Earlier this year, it began quietly accumulating physical uranium, and according to sources, plans to scale up those purchases going forward.

This move only came to light last week through a Reuters leak, but it turns out Mercuria isn’t alone. Two major banks, Citibank and Natixis, are also now confirmed to be active in physical uranium trading. Until now, Goldman Sachs and Macquarie were essentially the only banks with meaningful uranium exposure. Natixis, it’s worth noting, is part of France’s large BPCE financial group.

Mercuria brings significant weight to the sector, with a market capitalization of about $18 billion—many times the size of other financial players in uranium, like Deep Yellow at roughly $2 billion and Sprott at just under $3 billion. They’ve also strengthened their uranium desk by hiring Goldman Sachs veteran Louis Csango to run the new business. Meanwhile, Goldman and Macquarie themselves have been stepping up their uranium activities.

For investors, this matters. The arrival of new heavyweight traders and global banks signals growing confidence in uranium’s future and could inject fresh liquidity into the market. That’s particularly important for the spot market, which—though a small slice of total uranium sales—remains the most visible price signal. If financial players keep ramping up, we could see more activity and upward pressure in spot pricing, and that ultimately shapes expectations for long-term contracts and uranium equities.

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India’s Nuclear Ambitions and the Hunt for Uranium

India’s largest coal producer, NTPC, is repositioning itself for the nuclear age. The state-owned power giant has signed an agreement with Uranium Corporation of India Limited to pursue uranium projects abroad. The goal is to secure long-term fuel for a new fleet of reactors NTPC hopes to build.

India has also signaled interest in thorium-based reactors, though that technology remains years away from commercial deployment. For now, the priority is conventional uranium-fueled reactors.

The scale of India’s ambition is striking. Today, the country operates about 8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity. By 2047, it wants 100 gigawatts—roughly the equivalent of adding one hundred large reactors, on par with Westinghouse’s AP1000 design. That’s a twelve-fold increase in just over two decades.

Such plans are only credible if fuel supply is locked in. Without uranium, the reactors are nothing more than empty shells. And it’s not just NTPC making moves. Conglomerates like Tata Group are positioning to enter nuclear, Larsen & Toubro is lining up to build reactors, and Vedanta’s subsidiary Hindustan Zinc has flagged uranium mining as a new interest.

For investors, the message is clear: India has capital, industrial muscle, and political momentum behind nuclear expansion—but it lacks uranium at home. That gap means India will increasingly look abroad to secure fuel, adding new long-term demand pressure to the global uranium market and raising the strategic value of assets held by today’s explorers and producers.

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Russia Doubles Down on Reactors, Tightens Uranium Supply

Russia is moving to double its domestic nuclear capacity by building 38 additional reactors. Through its state-owned corporation Rosatom, Russia already holds significant influence over the uranium sector. It ranks as the world’s fifth-largest producer of U3O8, maintains a close alliance with Kazakhstan—the number one producer—and dominates critical stages of the fuel cycle, from conversion and enrichment to fuel fabrication. Importantly, Russia controls the entire global capacity for High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, which is essential for the next generation of advanced reactors.

Beyond its domestic plans, Russia also exports reactor technology worldwide, leveraging nuclear projects to expand its diplomatic reach. Each new foreign build locks in decades of fuel supply and services, further entrenching Rosatom’s role in the global market.

This push to expand its own reactor fleet means Russia will increasingly channel its uranium, conversion, and enrichment capacity inward—leaving less available for Western buyers. Layer on sanctions and import bans already cutting Russia out of Western markets, and the trend is clear: more fuel is being redirected east, while Western utilities face mounting supply risk.

Russia is also working to secure uranium outside its borders, through closer ties with Kazakhstan, partnerships in Africa, and opportunistic moves in places like Niger. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan itself is building three reactors, which will soak up more of its own supply going forward. Even if at some point Russia and China were to re-engage with Western markets, they’ll still have to prioritize fueling their own massive reactor fleets.

For investors, the message is straightforward: global uranium demand is climbing, particularly in the East, while available supply for the West is tightening. Whether the market remains unified or splits into two distinct blocs, a supply crunch looks unavoidable. The key difference will be severity—and Western utilities are positioned to feel the sharpest pinch.

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Purepoint’s Dorado Delivers High-Grade Uranium

IsoEnergy and Purepoint have reported strong assay results from their 50/50 Dorado joint venture on the southeastern margin of Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. The standout comes from drill hole PG25-07A at the Nova discovery zone, where assays returned 2.1 metres grading 1.6% U₃O₈, including a high-grade interval of 0.4 metres at 8.1%. The same hole also intersected 4.9 metres at 0.52%, with pockets reaching nearly 3%.

These are the best assays yet from Nova and confirm the presence of a robust uranium system. According to Purepoint CEO Chris Frostad, hole 7A provides an anchor point as the mineralized structure is tested in all directions.

In total, 11 holes were drilled this summer for just over 5,000 metres before regional wildfires curtailed the program. Drilling at the nearby Celeste project was deferred entirely due to hazardous conditions. Additional holes at the Serin and Turaco grids did not encounter economic mineralization but provided valuable structural and geophysical data to refine future targeting.

Follow-up drilling across Dorado is already being planned for early 2026, once full assays and interpretations are complete.

For investors, the key takeaway is this: assays like 8% U₃O₈ are world-class, and they strengthen the case that Dorado could evolve into a meaningful new discovery in the Basin. While the wildfire disruption slows near-term news flow, the system remains open, and the next campaign has clear vectors to chase. In a tight uranium market, even early signs of scalable, high-grade mineralization can draw market attention and re-rate equities involved.